Welsh Black Johne’s Control Provides Template

The control of the debilitating Johne’s Disease
in the Welsh Black Cattle breed serves as a template for other breeds
to follow, according to the Society’s President Bruce Lawson.

Mr Lawson FRAgS, a retired senior partner at a Dolgellau veterinary
practice, is veterinary advisor to the Welsh
Black Cattle Society
and has co-ordinated the battle against Johne’s since 2000. He
says a big factor in reducing the incidence of the chronic wasting
disease is commitment to a firm plan of action.

Welsh Black Cattle Society President
Bruce Lawson

Mr Lawson, who is President of the Society in recognition of his
work, said: “I am full of praise for the way Welsh Black breeders
have embraced the Johne's disease control scheme and proud of the
success that they have achieved. The result is that 95% of all
the cattle entered into the Welsh Black pedigree sales in 2012
were accredited to risk level 1 for Johne's disease.

“The Welsh
Black is numerically a fairly small breed, compared to something
like the Limousins and so, suddenly, the effect of the disease
became more obvious. One herd would be selling cattle to a lot
of other herds and spreading it.

“The same has happened in other
breeds, but it was very noticeable in the Welsh
Blacks and we were
getting complaints in Council. So they were determined to do something
about it.

“If you’re selling
breeding stock, I think the time has come today where you should
be participating (in the scheme) because purchasers who have been
bitten before don’t want to buy stock in that are carrying Johne’s
disease.”

Mr Lawson’s work with the Society has been geared to reducing
the spread of the disease from herd to herd, to controlling it
within infected herds and to identifying clean herds. The risk-based
approach grades herds on a scale of 1 (lowest risk) to 5 (highest
risk) in terms of infection.

Herds need to have three clear consecutive
annual tests of all animals of two years and older in order to
gain Level 1 status, with the lowest risk of selling infected stock.
Level 2 herds have had one or more clear herd tests, with Levels
3 & 4 depending
upon the number of reactors in the herd while Level 5 herds are
those that don’t have a health plan in place or are not participating,
so posing the greatest risk of Johne’s disease.

Mr Lawson says he considers that at least 40% of herds in Britain
are carrying Johne’s Disease. An animal could look perfectly well while
incubating the disease, then the stress of moving to a new farm would
bring the animal down, seeding Johne’s in the new herd.

The condition is not thought to be hereditary, although newly born
calves tend to be very susceptible. The MAP,
the Mycobacterium paratuberculosis bacteria, is shed in the faeces, can be found in the colostrum and
in the milk and can be passed through the uterus via the placenta,
making the newborn or unborn calf very susceptible.

The best control
combined testing and culling, with husbandry and hygiene improvements,
such as cleanliness at calving, and protecting calves from contaminated
feed and water. Winter and autumn calving could be an issue in that
calves have to be kept in longer in an often dirty environment.

Welsh
Black Cattle Society Chairman, Robert Jones, said Bruce Lawson had
been made a President of the Society in recognition of the strategy
he had devised with the Society to control Johne’s Disease. He said
his own late father, William Tudor Jones, had initiated the scheme
and now all cattle sold at the pedigree sales are from participating
herds and about 90% are at Risk Level 1.

He added: “There was a dire
need to do something about the disease. It’s been a wonderful initiative
and we are happy and proud to think that other breeds are following
us.”

Meanwhile Mr Lawson’s work with the Welsh Black breed has a certain
synchronicity. His parents’ farm in Fife was sold to a noted Scottish
Welsh Black breeder, Mr R E Gordon, and his wife, Catherine’s, Anglesey
grandfather, Thomas Muir, was featured in the first volume of the Welsh
Black Herd book in 1905.

Then of course, his Dolgellau practice was
situated in the heart of Welsh Black country, providing a rich research
resource in Bruce Lawson’s daily working life. He says it’s an honour
and a delight to serve as the Society’s President.